--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...>
> >> Where is your data ?
> >
> > You've had the references.
> =========
> Sorry but I clicked on a link that does not provide any data,
> just the reconstructed form.
> If I missed something, I'd be glad to get the right reference.
Brian posted the link -
http:<//en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Proto-Semitic_*%C5%9Bal%C4%81%CE%B8->
- try
http://preview.tinyurl.com/42t6ez if your browser is giving you
trouble. Searching for:
"led to various gender polarity phenomena" three
on French Google will also get you there.
> > They are exceptions to C1=C3. One can
> > also see the first consonant assimilating to the third because the
> > third consonant is the same as the first consonant of the word for
> > '2'. That is a universal tendency.
> ===========
> I don't understand what you mean.
> C1=C3 is exceptional in Semitic.
The reconstruction being offered, ignoring the vowels, is *s'-l-t_ (_
for interdental), where <s'> is the sound with Arabic reflex /s/ and
the Hebrew reflex transcribed <s'>, written with sin, and pronounced
/s/ by the Jews. (The Samaritans pronounce it differently.) A
lateral fricative makes sense as a Semitic reconstruction, though the
AA reconstruction is as an affricative with lateral release. For
'two' the Proto-Semitic form is reconstructed as starting t_-n-.
Now, in numeral systems it seems common for successive numerals to
come to start with the same letter. Thus, in a counting sequence, it
would not be surprising for t_-n-... s'-l-t_... to become t_-n-...
t_-l-t_..., especially as the former seems to be a bit of tongue
twister. s'-l-t_ also comes close to breaching a root constraint
(namely C1 != C2, with phonation differences not sufficing) and I note
that in Hebrew sin-lamedh-C is disproportionately (just one example in
my pocket dictionary) rare compared to initial shin-lamedh-C.
C1=C3 is far from unknown in Semitic - we have Hebrew/Aramaic n-t-n
'give' (also Geez, though it has been sugested this is a loan), and
Akkadian n-d-n. What's the Proto-Semitic 'sun' root currently
considered to be? s^-m-s^ or s^-m-s? s^-C-s^ is actually quite
common in Hebrew, but that may just be a feature of Hebrew.
Richard.